Dr LeCrone
03-30-2006, 08:21 AM
A recent conference I attended addressed at length the topic of the mid-life crisis. Because this fairly predictable and inevitable time in life has been researched during the last 15 years, many conclusions have been reached as to the onset of this crisis, its external signals and its internal stress.
From the mid-30s to the mid-50s, some individuals adopt a radical change and shift in value systems, lifestyles and personal habits. Consider these signals:
A 40-year-old moderate conservative suddenly buys a new sports car, unbuttons his shirt almost to the navel, hangs a gold chain around his neck and adds a few bracelets on his wrist. What is his reasoning? What are his intentions?
Consider these facts:
Tom “celebrated” his 40th birthday with the realization that he had passed the mid-point in his life without reaching some aspirations and goals he had set.
Physiologically he knew he was changing and slowing down. He began to ask himself questions, such as, “Do I want to stay with my present job, which is no longer challenging and certainly not the peak to which I had hoped to reach? Do I want to continue in my marriage, which has lost its zest and polarized differences in our personalities?”
Secretly, Tom was asking himself if he wanted to have the fun and excitement of a lifestyle he had not experienced, but about which he had often fantasized.
Watching the media, which promotes emphasizing youthful bodies, full flowing heads of hair and skin without wrinkles, enhances the feeling of “growing older” and a longing for perpetual youth and beauty.
Mid-life crisis has been associated only with the male, but the female has many of the same symptoms.
Mary had been a good and faithful wife. She had never spent much money on clothes and cosmetics. In fact, her spouse always bragged about her natural look, her casual and simple dress. Mary had been a good mother, often sacrificing her time for recreation and personal pleasure to take groups of young people on camping trips. Her house was the favorite retreat for the majority of her children’s friends. Then John died suddenly and Mary was so lonely. On her 45th birthday she looked in the mirror, made an appointment to see a doctor and scheduled a series of what she called “my self-improvement” program. Firs she had a face lift, then purchased extreme designer clothes, acquired an exaggerated hair style and sought new acquaintances and travel. While her friends were appalled by her flirtations, she justified it all by saying she had never had any fun in her life. Life had been too pat, too boring. But she began having doubts about her involvements with men.
At the seminar, participants agreed that psychological pressures can lead to poor judgment, irrational behavior and decision-making that result in regret and additional stress.
Next week I will discuss ways to help a person though this stressful period and examine some of the everyday activities that can trigger a mid-life crisis.
Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1986
From the mid-30s to the mid-50s, some individuals adopt a radical change and shift in value systems, lifestyles and personal habits. Consider these signals:
A 40-year-old moderate conservative suddenly buys a new sports car, unbuttons his shirt almost to the navel, hangs a gold chain around his neck and adds a few bracelets on his wrist. What is his reasoning? What are his intentions?
Consider these facts:
Tom “celebrated” his 40th birthday with the realization that he had passed the mid-point in his life without reaching some aspirations and goals he had set.
Physiologically he knew he was changing and slowing down. He began to ask himself questions, such as, “Do I want to stay with my present job, which is no longer challenging and certainly not the peak to which I had hoped to reach? Do I want to continue in my marriage, which has lost its zest and polarized differences in our personalities?”
Secretly, Tom was asking himself if he wanted to have the fun and excitement of a lifestyle he had not experienced, but about which he had often fantasized.
Watching the media, which promotes emphasizing youthful bodies, full flowing heads of hair and skin without wrinkles, enhances the feeling of “growing older” and a longing for perpetual youth and beauty.
Mid-life crisis has been associated only with the male, but the female has many of the same symptoms.
Mary had been a good and faithful wife. She had never spent much money on clothes and cosmetics. In fact, her spouse always bragged about her natural look, her casual and simple dress. Mary had been a good mother, often sacrificing her time for recreation and personal pleasure to take groups of young people on camping trips. Her house was the favorite retreat for the majority of her children’s friends. Then John died suddenly and Mary was so lonely. On her 45th birthday she looked in the mirror, made an appointment to see a doctor and scheduled a series of what she called “my self-improvement” program. Firs she had a face lift, then purchased extreme designer clothes, acquired an exaggerated hair style and sought new acquaintances and travel. While her friends were appalled by her flirtations, she justified it all by saying she had never had any fun in her life. Life had been too pat, too boring. But she began having doubts about her involvements with men.
At the seminar, participants agreed that psychological pressures can lead to poor judgment, irrational behavior and decision-making that result in regret and additional stress.
Next week I will discuss ways to help a person though this stressful period and examine some of the everyday activities that can trigger a mid-life crisis.
Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1986